Blue Turns To Grey

Besides their own successful records, in the early sixties the Stones were also invading the charts by selling their songs to other artitsts. Not with the same amount of success that Lennon/McCartney enjoyed, but pretty successfully anyway.  Like As Tears Go By, this song was deemed not to fit their image, then when it became a hit for someone else they decided to make put their own version out there. In this case it was a hit someone called Dick & Dee Dee and also for The Mighty Avengers in 1965. Then it was a hit  for Cliff Richard (perhaps in repayment for Keith emulating Cliff’s name spelling?) in 1966. It appeared on December’s Children in 65. Listen carefully to Dick and Dee Dee’s performance and you’ll notice that the Stones themselves are singing in the background. That’s because Dick and Dee Dee and the Mighty Avengers both used the same backing track the Stones originally recorded. The December’s Children track has a new, less cheezy instrumental backing, and Cliff Richard’s version had a different backing track as well.  Apperently, this was common practice in those days.